MTV set to launch online TV community website

by Ian Quinn, Media Week 25-Jul-06

MTV Networks UK & Ireland is going head to head with social networking sites like News International's MySpace and Bebo, with the launch next month of its own online community site, MTV Flux.

The arrival of the website, at www.mtvflux.co.uk, will be followed on 6
September by a Flux TV channel. The channel will feature music videos,
determined by Flux members, with additional user-generated content and

text-to-screen applications.

The website will allow users to create their own personalised on-screen
identity. "Fluxers" will also be able to communicate via mobiles by
texting each other using their identities, or avatars.

Viacom Brand Solutions will sell advertising on Flux for MTV parent
company Viacom. VBS managing director Nick Bampton said: "For the first
time in the UK, MTV Flux will enable advertisers to reach a music, media
and tech-savvy community across a number of platforms in an ongoing
relationship.

"User-generated content and social networking are increasingly popular
trends. Not only does MTV Flux tap into the heart of these, it offers
something never seen before."

Flux will exist in the UK before it is launched in any other market, the
US included. Viacom claims it will provide advertisers with a route to
the hard to reach 16-24 market, and that its strategy has an advantage
over alternatives like ITV's community website, Friends Reunited,
because it is based around its existing core audience.